Cowboy Bebop: Epilogue
by CAkbar
Summary: Takes place after the last episode. Goes into how the characters carry on.


The explosions and gunfire eventually drew the police to the headquarters of the Red Dragon Syndicate. None of the men still alive felt like putting up a fight - now that all their leaders were dead. The police rounded up the remaining members and recovered the bodies, including that of Spike Spiegel.  
  
Back on the Bebop, Faye had gone to her room and cried until she fell asleep. The small life she had just come to know, the only life she had left, was breaking apart.  
  
Jet had stayed up all night. The shaman told him that Spike wasn't coming back, and he felt that this time it was true. But he wanted to stay up, just in case; Just in case Spike returned, just in case Spike needed his help, just in case...  
  
He had lost too many good friends in his life.  
  
But the night was over, and now the morning had begun. Jet started dozing off on the couch when he got the call. He shook off the sleep and quickly grabbed the receiver. "Spike!"  
  
"No Jet. It's me Frank." It was one of his old ISSP buddies. He had a somber look on his face.  
  
"What is it?" said Jet grimly. He already knew what Frank was going to say.  
  
"It's your partner. We picked up his body at the Red Dragon headquarters. We don't know exactly what happened, but it looks like he tore up the place pretty good. We think he was after Vicious, the new Red Dragon leader. It looks like Spike killed him, but he was mortally wounded himself. I'm sorry Jet."  
  
Jet clenched his teeth, shut his eyes tight, and looked away. He wasn't crying, his tears dried up long ago, but even after all these years and losing so many people he cared about, it still hurt like hell.  
  
After giving him a few moments, Frank went on. "We...have his body down here at the morgue, and Spike doesn't have any known living relatives. I thought you might like to take it."  
  
Jet took a few seconds. "Yea, I'll come get it."  
  
"Alright. I'll let them know."  
  
"Say, do you happen to have the body of a women, someone named Julia?"  
  
"I don't know. Let me check" Frank turned to his computer and ran a search. "Yea. A woman's body was brought in yesterday. She was ID'd as a Julia by our investigative records. No last name available. She died from a gunshot wound to the back."  
  
"Look, Julia was...a friend of Spike's. I know this isn't normal procedure, but I'd like to take both their bodies."  
  
"Well, we don't have any relatives listed for her either, so I should be able to work it out. I'll arrange it. Say we also picked up your partner's ship."  
  
"I'll send someone to pick it up"  
  
"I'll let them know."  
  
"Thanks." Jet hung up the vid-phone and looked up to see Faye leaning against the wall in the doorway. She was holding herself, sobbing quietly.  
  
Jet got up and walked towards her. He stopped in doorway. Not looking at her he spoke, "I'm going to go pick up Spike's body. I'll be back in an hour. Can you go to the impound and pickup his ship?" Faye wiped away her tears and nodded yes. Jet walked to the Hammerhead and went on his way.  
  
A few minutes later Jet arrived at the morgue. He went in and got the bodies. He put them both in a large anti-grav container, side-by-side. On his way out his friend Frank called to him. "Hey Jet!"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"Jet, I'm glad I caught up with you. Look, I didn't want to tell you earlier and I don't know if it's a good time now, but I wanted to make sure you knew before you leave."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Well, alot of those guys that your partner took out had bounties on their heads. Some of them dead or alive. Many of them were pretty big. Especially the one for Vicious."  
  
"So?"  
  
"Since your partner took them out he was eligible for the reward. Me and some of the other guys made sure he got credit, even for some of the members we rounded up earlier. The ISSP has wanted to get rid of the Red Dragon for a long time, but we never had the manpower to do it, and your partner Spike virtually took out the entire organization at its head all by himself. Here." Frank handed Jet a small sheet of paper. "It's a receipt. We went ahead and had this deposited in an ISSP account for you. That's everything your partner earned. It's all yours now."  
  
"Hmph." Jet smiled slightly and shook his head. "After all this time, running all over the galaxy, we finally hit it big." Jet stuffed the paper in his vest pocket.  
  
"I'm sorry Jet."  
  
"Thanks for your help Frank. I'll see you around." Jet waved goodbye as walked back to the Hammerhead.  
  
"Take care of yourself Jet!" Shouted Frank.  
  
Back on the ship, Faye was laying on the couch. The Swordfish was in the hanger. She had finished crying and now was just thinking about her pathetic life and the future.  
  
Jet walked in and tossed the receipt on the table. Faye sat up as Jet plopped down in a chair opposite to her and looked out the window. They sat for awhile in silence. Eventually, Jet spoke. "I know this beautiful beach on Ganymede. I thought we might take Spike and Julia there. Maybe I can contact Spike's friend Doohan. He might want to come." Faye nodded in silent agreement.  
  
Jet tells Faye about Spike's reward and says that he can pay off all her debt with no problem and still have alot more left over. He says that she ought to hang out with him for awhile until she finds out what she wants to do and says that he isn't going anywhere. Faye smiles and shakes her head the same way Jet did when Frank gave him the reciept. She had been suffocating in her fear of what was going to happen. Would Jet leave too? She didn't want to be alone. She felt lost in an alien universe. But right now, at this moment, her fears suddenly seemed so small.  
  
Back on Earth, Ed reads about what happened over the SpaceNet and she and Ein make their way back to the Bebop. To the surprise of Jet and Faye, she brings her father with her. Jet welcomes them all on board. Ed quickly makes herself at home. "Aren't you going to miss mapping new meteor hits?" asks Jet. Appledairy, Ed's father, waves the notion aside. "Ed caught up with me and we've been spending time together, running around the Earth. Having her with me made me realize what I should have been doing all along; which was taking care of my only daughter. When her mother died, I lost myself in my work. I didn't know what else to do. Going on with my life felt too hard, but now I know I've got to."  
  
"Hmm." said Jet smiling.  
  
"Besides, my little girl thought up a better way to save the Earth. She's developing a defense grid to surround the planet. Once complete it will be able to blow up all the meteors before they enter the atmosphere."  
  
"What? People have been working on that for decades. No one could make a targeting system fast enough to catch a meteor so close to the Earth. You mean to tell me that Ed figured it out all by herself?"  
  
"Ed did! I mean, yes. I figured it out." Said Edward, correcting her speech pattern.  
  
"I don't believe it." said Jet dumbfounded.  
  
"I've made some contacts with some of the space governments and a few of them seem interested in helping putting it in place." Appledairy went on. "The head of company who started the Gate system heard about it and said that he would get us anything we needed to design the defense grid."  
  
"Well, I'll be..." said Jet in disbelief. He knew Ed was a genius, but he would be forever in awe of this gangly teenager's uncanny abilities.  
  
A few days later Jet, Faye, Doohan, Ed, her father, and Ein, meet on a beach. It is a nice day; warm with a cool breeze. Jet says a few words about Spike, what he knows of his life, their friendship, and Spike's love for Julia. After everything has been said, Doohan uses a remote and sends their bodies into the atmosphere in the Swordfish. Once it gets high enough, he detonates the ship and their ashes are spread across the shoreline.  
  
Everyone stands silently for a long time, not wanting to disturb the moment. After all the ashes have fallen, they make their way back to the Bebop where they sit and think about their lost friend.  
  
Jet takes Doohan back to his planet and pays him to fix up and upgrade the Bebop. Ed decides it would be best to stay with Doohan, who lends his technical expertise to the defense grid, so her father and Ein stay also. Jet splits the rest of Spike's reward with Faye. There was so much left that neither of them had to work as bounty hunter's, or as anything else for that matter, ever again. Faye chooses to stay on the Bebop, for the time being. She really had no where else to go. Jet, Ed, and Spike had become the only family she had in the universe. Now Spike was gone.  
  
Jet thinks about rejoining the ISSP, but he was tired of that life. Maybe he would start a shipping company with the Bebop. Neither he, nor Faye, really knew what they wanted to do. But both of them decided that they had had enough of the emptiness of space. Whatever they did, they knew they had to live life to its fullest. Spike wouldn't have wanted anything less for his friends. Their past would always be with them and they would never forget, but what was more important was the present, and the future they made for themselves.  
  
- Fin -  
  
  
Ride on cowboy. 


End file.
